Chapter 2 - The Camera Ryan Wanted
Ryan’s eyes never left the camera.
“Move, Emma.”
“No.”
Lily was pressed against my legs, crying quietly now.
Diane climbed out of the laundry basket.
“You’re turning this into something it isn’t.”
I stared at her.
“You dragged a baby across the floor with a dog leash.”
“She wasn’t hurt.”
That sentence frightened me almost as much as what I had witnessed.
Because Diane didn’t sound ashamed.
She sounded annoyed that I had interrupted.
Ryan took another step.
I moved with him.
“Why do you want that camera so badly?”
“I don’t.”
“Then back away from it.”
He didn’t.
For seven years, Ryan had been the calm one in our marriage. He rarely raised his voice. He avoided arguments. Whenever Diane criticized me, he called it “Mom being Mom.”
Now his hands were shaking.
I took out my phone.
Ryan immediately reached for it.
I stepped back.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Emma, listen—”
“No. You listen. Lily and I are leaving.”
Diane laughed bitterly.
“With whose permission?”
I stared at her.
That was the first moment I understood this was bigger than cruelty.
Diane genuinely believed she had authority over me.
Over my daughter.
Maybe even over my home.
I picked Lily up.
Ryan blocked the hallway.
“Give her to me.”
Lily buried her face against my shoulder.
“No.”
“She’s my daughter too.”
“Then why didn’t you ask if she was okay?”
His face tightened.
No answer.
I walked toward him anyway.
After several terrible seconds, he stepped aside.
As I passed, Diane said something quietly.
“You should’ve stayed at your sister’s until tomorrow like Ryan told you.”
I stopped.
I had never told Diane I was supposed to stay overnight.
Only Ryan knew that.
And I had come home early without warning.
I looked at my husband.
His face gave me the answer before his mouth could.
May you like
My early return hadn’t interrupted an accident.
I had interrupted something planned.
